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Fear Monster
The "Fear Monster" is a mysterious supernatural entity which feeds upon mortal fear. As such, it manifests itself to people who are afraid for their lives, taking the form of that which they fear most. Biology The Fear Monster only appears at full moon nights, and moves from one victim to the next like a contagion. It doesn't prey on any sort of fear other than "mortal fear", and only targets victims that are afraid something will kill them (or at very least physically harm them). While some victims are indeed killed, others survive the attacks, although the monster may return to them later after being done with another victim. People who are present during the attacks, but don't exhibit mortal fear, will be ignored, and are not able to see the monster in any way. The Fear Monster is more than a mere shapeshifter. Its very physicality seems to change according to each person's fears. In most of the forms it took, it was physical enough to leave claw marks on wood, as well as slash, sting, break necks, or otherwise assault its victims. When Deputy Wetzel shot at the it, a flattened bullet was subsequently found on the middle of the street, proving that he did hit something. However, when the monster attacked the coroner's assistant, it manifested only as the symptoms of the disease she feared, working by the power of suggestion to kill her "in the worst possible way that she could imagine", as Mulder put it. Additionally, in many of the incidents, the Fear Monster seemed to appear as different things to different people at the same time. The ways some of the victims were killed were not compatible with what witnesses described. For example: Chantara Gomez claimed that she saw Chuco Munoz kill Ricky Koehler, but the claw marks on Koehler's body (and the fact that he likely didn't know Munoz and had no reason to fear him, unlike Gomez) suggest otherwise. When Gomez herself was killed later, Deputy Wetzel claimed that the monster appeared to him as the "Wasp Man", but Gomez had died of a broken neck, not wasp stings. These incidents suggest that the monster's specific forms are illusory in nature, but its ability to inflict damage and interact with its surroundings are real, and determined by the specific fears of the victim. Whenever the Fear Monster's attacks are witnessed by someone who isn't "mortally afraid" of anything, they see only the victim being killed, with no clue of who or what is killing them. This is demonstrated when Steve and Edy saw Ricky Koehler being killed, and though he was having some sort of "conniption fit"; and when Scully was present at the time the coroner's assistant was killed, but didn't see anything unusual and wasn't targeted by the monster then or afterwards. Known forms For over 60 days, the neighborhood of Willow Park, Los Angeles, has been visited by this mysterious entity, resulting in numerous reports of monsters and other apparitions; always happening at night during full moons. The following is a list of forms known to have been taken by the Fear Monster. *'Werewolf': the Fear Monster assumed this form to attack Hyman Escalara, who later died of his wounds in the hospital, but managed to give a detailed description of what he saw before death. *'Freddy Krueger': the Fear Monster assumed the guise of this infamous killer when attacking Mrs. Guerrero, leaving deep claw marks on her wooden door. Guerrero described the attacker only as a "monster", but gave a detailed description that matched Krueger's, as seen in the sketch produced by police sketch artist Ricky Koehler. Since Koehler was clearly afraid of being left alone afterwards, and his body was later found with similar slash marks, it's possible that the Fear Monster appeared in the form of Krueger to him as well. *'Wasp Man': this insectoid creature is the form that the Fear Monster assumed when going after Deputy Keith Wetzel. The monstrous wasp creature with a mouth full of stingers originated from stories made up by Wetzel's brother to scare him when they were children. It was strong enough to flip a police car over, and the flattened bullet suggests that its hide is bulletproof. Analysis confirmed that the sting marks Wetzel sustained originated from some kind of insect, although its venom didn't seem to have any effect on Wetzel (possibly because he managed to keep his fear under control for the most part, during the first attacks). *'Chuco Munoz': the Fear Monster appeared to Chantara Gomez as her pimp, Chuco Munoz, whom she feared because he had threatened to kill her by twisting her neck. Gomez claimed that she saw Munoz attack Ricky Koehler, even though Koehler's body had deep claw marks that suggest that the monster may have appeared to him as Krueger instead. Unbeknownst to Gomez, the real Munoz was later found dead, having died from overdose a few days before, proving that he couldn't be the killer. Although Deputy Wetzel was charged with protecting Gomez, the Fear Monster appeared to him as the Wasp Man again, and Gomez was found dead in the backseat of the police car, with her neck twisted, suggesting that the monster appeared to her as Munoz. *'Hantavirus': the Fear Monster manifested itself as the symptoms of a hantavirus infection to a coroner's assistant who was working with Scully in analyzing Gomez' body. The assistant had heard rumors of some kind of contagion (unaware that it referred to Mulder's theory about how the Fear Monster spreads from victim to victim), and started to panic over the fact that she and Scully were not wearing masks or taking other precautions. Although Scully denied that they were dealing with a pathogen, she couldn't explain the actual cause of concern either, and the assistant's paranoia grew as she talked about hantavirus and quickly developed the symptoms, dying soon afterwards. Scully noted that the real hantavirus doesn't kill victims so fast, and in fact no real virus does. Appearances *''The X-Files'', s07e12, "X-Cops" (2000) Notes *This episode was filmed entirely like an episode of the reality show Cops. Since the Fear Monster's physical forms are seen only by its victims, and not by the cameras, the creature itself remains unseen throughout the episode. Category:Fictional Creatures Category:X-Files Universe Category:Shapeshifting Creatures Category:Paranormal Beings Category:Unnamed Creatures Category:Psychovores Category:Unknown Sentience Category:Unknown Sapience Category:Urban Creatures Category:Nocturnal Creatures Category:Unseen Creatures Category:Characters Debuting in 2000 Category:TV Show Creatures Category:Live Action Creatures Category:Creatures Created by Vince Gilligan